Stillness
by Insane. Certifiably
Summary: The little moments, the ones everyone often overlooks, that make a family; even when that family is as impossible as it is possible to be.
1. Home

It was nothing short of miraculous that they all managed to stay awake long enough for North to actually land the sleigh at the Pole. The absence of believers had taken its toll on all of them, and they had expended a lot of energy against Pitch and his nightmares. Even though they needed less sleep than mortals, the requirement was still there. Bunny actually yawned once, and Jack stayed perched on the back of the sleigh, defying the wind, utterly still for once. Sandy grabbed the back of his hoodie and yanked him into the sleigh proper just before they went through the portal, preventing their newest member from falling off in the rush of warm-air-magic that suddenly burst back into chilly air over Santoff Clausen.

The reindeer tugged the sleigh straight into the stable and they all piled out and staggered off to the main room, leaving the vehicle in the yetis' capable hands, or paws. Bunny made a beeline for one of the armchairs by the fire, flopped down into it, and was asleep in seconds.

North hesitated, wavering between joining the rabbit and checking to see how his workshop was doing. Sandy decided for him, pitching a loosely packed circle of dreamsand at the back of his head. North toppled over with all the grace of a dying toad, falling into the armchair opposite from Bunny. Tooth settled on the rug in front of the fire, curled up with her back to the flames, and joined the other two in dreamland.

Sometime later, the Guardian of Memories woke, stretching out contentedly. For a moment, she allowed herself to stay like that, simply soaking in North's snores and the warmth of the fire behind her, then she sighed and blinked amethyst eyes open. She'd always needed less sleep than the others, partly her natural constitution and partly because she was a Guardian with a round-the-clock job, so she could go weeks on patches of sleep caught here and there in the lulls.

She pushed herself up, lifting into the air, and glanced around. Bunny and North were still flopped over in their respective armchairs, the former now with one of his paws running as he dreamed, while Sandy had conjured a cloud over their heads. Though she couldn't see the small golden man, she knew he was there. For a moment, she couldn't find Jack, then a flash of white and blue caught her eye and she had to stop herself from giggling.

The boy was sprawled, quite literally, in a windowsill, as close to the cold as he could get without leaving them. His head was lolling against the glass, leg dangling down the wall, fingers of one hand loose on the staff propped from a corner to the wall over his head.

She hated to leave them now, but she had to get back to her duties and she needed to make sure all her helpers had returned to the Tooth Palace safely.

"Baby Tooth?" she called softly, glancing around for the miniature cluster of turquoise feathers. She could have sworn the little fairy was right next to her on the way back. A soft chirp coming, surprisingly, from Jack, caught her attention.

A quick glance confirmed that the winter spirit was still asleep, not imitating Baby Tooth to trick her, but when she called again, the answering chirp definitely came from the region of Jack's head. She flew closer, and a head popped out of Jack's hood. Baby Tooth yawned hugely, then flew to her. Tooth cradled her missing helper in her palms, cuddling her close.

"Where were you?" she whispered, mindful of the rest of the still-sleeping Guardians not ten feet away.

Baby Tooth pointed back toward Jack and Tooth mentally smacked herself for asking a question with such an obvious answer.

"Ready to go?" she asked, wings lifting her a little higher. Baby Tooth shook her head firmly, hopping up to fly under her own power. She pointed back at Jack again and chirped.

"What?" Tooth asked. She glanced from her helper to the sleeping spirit, confused. "Jack can visit whenever he likes," she told the little fairy, "but we need to get back."

Baby Tooth chirped again, more urgently. "Shh," Tooth hushed urgently, glancing down at the two in the armchairs. Usually she had no problem translating her helpers, but Baby Tooth seemed to be having trouble getting her meaning across right now.

The little fairy chirped again, softer and slower, more deliberately.

"Oh," Tooth breathed as Baby Tooth's request finally became clear. It made sense, in a way; Jack had saved her, given her a nickname, but obviously there was more than she knew if Baby Tooth wanted so badly to stay with him. If one of her babies wanted this more than she wanted to collect teeth, what she knew they all loved, Tooth couldn't deny her.

The Guardian of Memories scooped her up, kissing the little fairy on her head before releasing her. Baby Tooth chirped once more in thanks before she flitted straight back to the winter spirit's shoulder and snuggled back into the folds of his hood, tugging the fabric over herself as a blanket.

Tooth hovered over, watching the pair of them. Asleep, the newest Guardian resembled the children they protected more than the immortal trickster he was. She smoothed back his bangs and repeated the gesture she had done to Baby Tooth, gently kissing his forehead.

She returned several hours later, fairies tallied and instructed, to find Jack had frozen Bunny's feet to the floor.

* * *

**I went, I saw the movie and the plot bunny in charge of fluff (who had previously been missing, presumed dead) crawled out of his hole. Now I have feels. I'm dumping them here. Enjoy, and expect more  
**


	2. Resounding echoes

The entrance to the Warren was atop a hill today, easily mistaken for nothing more than a hole in the ground. Baby Tooth had shown him the trick to finding it the last time they visited and this time he wanted to make sure he could find Bunny's home. Jack squinted down, making sure this was the right tunnel, then hopped in, eager to get out of the sun.

The earth was cool around him a welcome refuge after the scorching sun and frost patterns glinted after him where he dragged a hand idly along the side of the tunnel. Bunny frowned on snow in his warren, so he tried to keep the ice to a minimum, though today he probably could have gotten away with a light dusting in one of the tunnels.

A voice echoed down the tunnel, faint, but growing stronger as he walked toward the source, until he could make out words. "While I'm alone and blue as can be."

Jack's eyebrows shot up into his bangs and he bit back the greeting he'd been about to call out. Usually Bunny knew exactly when someone was in his hideout, a fact that had led to him getting caught several times, but with Easter tomorrow the big rabbit was understandably distracted. Jack himself got like just before winter started, when he could widen his sphere of influence and the snow was itching to burst free.

Soft as a snowflake, he crept down the tunnel, following the singing, smirk swiftly growing across his face.

"Dream a little dream of me."

Tooth hummed sometimes in a distracted manner, songs hundreds of years old that she'd lost the words to. North mumbled things in Russian that could be imagined to be Christmas carols when he was working on a particularly perplexing problem, but he'd never heard any of his fellow Guardians outright sing. He hadn't been aware any of them could until now.

"Stars fading, but I linger on, dear," Bunny continued.

Jack flitted unobserved out of one of the tunnels and leaned against the wall, watching Bunny hop around. The rabbit was monitoring egg-painting, paws a whirl as he put touches on some of the more intricate eggs. Baby Tooth spotted the Guardian of Fun and zipped over, chirping that Bunny wasn't paying her any attention. The teen quickly shushed her, hoping Bunny wouldn't hear.

"Still craving your kiss,"

Now Baby Tooth was shushing him as Jack had to choke back laughter at the little dance step that accompanied that line. That alone would provide excellent blackmail material.

"I'm longing to linger to dawn, dear, just saying this."

Bunny's voice gained in volume on the last words, notes rising to rattle around the dome. Jack had to admit, the Guardian of Hope could sing, but oh how he wished he had a camera right now. Jamie and Sophie would love this, though the latter simply because Bunny was her favorite Guardian and she loved anything to do with him for reasons he himself couldn't fathom.

"Sweet dreams 'til sunbeams find you."

Bunny had started crooning, bent over the finished eggs as they trooped in rows toward the main distribution point. He was singing directly to the eggs now, rather than the at-large singing he'd been doing since Jack had entered the Warren.

"Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you,"

He nudged one wayward egg back into the line with the gentleness that belied his size and often argumentative nature. The song had dropped from filling the dome to a soft ballad, soothing the eggs into behaving, perhaps even imbibing them with something more than just normal eggs.

"But in your dreams, whatever they be, dream a little dream of me."

The song trailed off into silence and Bunny straightened up with a satisfied sort of noise as the last few eggs filed past him. For a moment the Warren was still, the only sound the whir of Baby Tooth's wings in the spirit's ear and the tromp of eggs' feet. When several seconds passed and Bunny didn't start again, Jack tucked his staff into the crook of his elbow, put his hands together and started clapping.

Bunny started, spinning around in midair to face him. He had one of his boomerangs out and ready to throw before he realized who was standing there. "Crikey Frostbite, don't scare me like that, I thought you were Pitch," he groaned, straightening back up. Jack leaned on his staff, smirking as the other Guardian suddenly froze, realizing what it meant that he was standing there. "Please tell me you didn't hear any of that."

The spirit's smile only grew.

* * *

**And this, fair ladies and noble gentlemen, is why the second genre is humor. I hope I could make you laugh.  
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**bedstories: I'm glad you liked Baby Tooth, and thank you for the chocolate.  
**


	3. Unusual bedfellows

He staggered a few times on the way up, still not quite sure of what he was doing with regard to the wind. It wasn't a control, but neither was he helpless, the wind wound around him and swirled inside him; answering his wishes, yet acting on its own. It was a give-and-take that was exhilarating and impossible to put into words.

He stopped when he could see the forest spread out underneath him, gleaming white and silver in the bright moonlight. He allowed a grin to spread as he admired his handiwork, frost and snow coating every branch. He'd been practicing doing larger areas, re-coating the ground in spreading sections and summoning storms. For tonight he had dispelled the clouds, leaving the moonlight to turn his work into a gleaming winter wonderland.

A disturbance in the even coat caught his eye and the grin widened as he swooped down in a manner more staggered than he would have liked. He flew over the forest, practicing winding, then fell through the tree-tops to settle among the wolves. He skimmed over the ground in the middle of the pack, watching their formation stagger for a moment as he dropped into it. One of them leapt at him and Jack didn't move, resigning himself to the animal going straight through him, like everything else had.

Pain exploded through his arm as sharp teeth sunk in and he lost the wind, tumbling to the ground head over heels in an explosion of snow and furry bodies.

After a few rotations, he came to a stop in the snow. The boy staggered to his senses, cradling the wounded arm close and looked up to come face to face with the head wolf. He was big, gray coat striped in paler patterns, teeth bared at the white-haired boy. A growl built low in his throat, a warning and precursor to another attack.

Jack bared his teeth and growled back with all the anger and savagery that came with being ignored and alone and in pain. The wolf's ears perked up and his hackles went down, perhaps recognizing a fellow wild creature.

Another wolf crowded in from the side, sniffing him suspiciously. She was smaller than the alpha male, paler than him, with brown freckled through her coat. She didn't quite touch him and the rest of the pack circled, waiting at a careful distance to see what their alphas made of this strange creature who had dropped in their midst who looked and dressed like a human but didn't behave like one.

Jack's eyes watered as it sunk in that they really could see him, that it hadn't been some weird accident that he was attacked. When the wolf at his side overcame her anxiety and licked the wound on his arm in something like apology, he buried the fingers of his free hand in the fur of her side, glorying in the presence of another living thing.

She snapped sternly at him, making him retract his fingers and hold very still so she could finish cleaning the wound on his arm. When she was satisfied, she curled up against him, lending silent support and Jack was free to brush a hand over her fur, marveling at the soft roughness.

A low, lazy growl escaped her. He took that to mean go to sleep and obliged, uninjured arm draped across the fur while she kept watch.

She was still there in the morning, and for the first time since he'd woken up with nothing but his name, Jack Frost was happy.

* * *

**The song Bunny was singing in the last chapter was called "Dream a Little Dream of me". I prefer the version by Mama Cass, but Michael Buble sang one as well.  
**

**I award both bedstories and Ithilas a cookie for reviewing. And, by the way, I do take requests.  
**


	4. Sticks and stones

**Warning for mentions of self-harm.**

He winced as the wind set him down. It tried to be gentle, but neither of them were gentle entities at heart, which had led to his current predicament. Jack had been completely prepared to simply coop up somewhere high and cold, usually a mountaintop and stay there for a while, but the wind had been quite insistent that he go north. Halfway over Europe, he had remembered that North had stashed a first-aid kit in his room "just in case". He had scoffed at the idea at the time, but perhaps there was something that could help.

In his slightly hazy state, he had let down in the wrong window. Usually, riding on the wind was easy as frosting things over, but the floor was jumping up and down and he could hardly focus enough to see in a straight line, let along think in three dimensions, so he was forced to walk.

A booming noise intruded on his ears, but Jack ignored it, fixing his gaze on the door he was certain led to his room. A few more steps and he could escape into there and there would be no noises. There would be snow, and cold, and he could sleep. Sleep was good.

Something large and predominately white swam up in front of his vision. He tried to keep walking, but found his path blocked. More noises boomed at him, but it didn't make any sense.

He blinked up as the white mass swam in front of his eyes. His shoulders were grabbed and he was shaken back and forth. It made the walls spin more and his side hurt. Jack didn't like it. He froze whatever was grabbing onto him and the white blur retreated.

It persisted, coming back. Jack froze it again and tried to push past. It stepped sideways, blocking his path, and he looked up at it. He was supposed to be angry, but it was difficult to remember why.

More noise came at him and suddenly it was just too much. The floor tipped violently and the darkness came rushing up to claim him.

* * *

He drifted back up out of strange dreams that faded away as he tried to grasp at them, leaving only an odd sense of warm that had nothing to do with temperature.

Still floating in the strange place between sleep and waking, Jack became aware that the warmth hadn't altogether faded. There was a splotch of it curled up beside his right collarbone, Baby Tooth's favorite place to perch, and another running through his hair. In another moment, he became aware of noises.

"He just collapsed?"

"Da, looked straight through me and toppled over."

"...You don't think Pitch did this to him?"

"Is too early for Pitch. Will not be strong enough for many years."

There were two voices, and neither seemed very interesting, so Jack tuned them out in favor of the humming he could hear just over his head. The smaller spot he was fairly certain was Baby Tooth was vibrating against his skin with the slow tune.

Tooth, then. It explained why Baby Tooth was here when he'd left her going about her rounds.

"I think he's waking up," the humming stopped when she spoke. Definitely Tooth.

Jack forced himself all the way awake, fighting back the blackness that tried to pull him back down into sleep. He forced his eyes open to find lilac eyes framed in brilliantly colored feathers leaning over him.

"Crikey Frostbite," said a voice that was not Tooth's, "what'd you do that for?"

There was an appropriate response to this, he knew it- the words slipped away when he tried to catch them. "Kangaroo?" he tried.

A chuckle sounded and his fingers clenched, searching for his staff. "Even when he's half bled to death, little snowflake manages to be annoying," the same gruff voice grumbled.

"Give him slack Bunny," asserted another voice, deeper, with a different accent. A large white beard appeared over him, wide blue eyes peering at him. "Jack, what happened?"

He would have waved it off, but it was rather difficult to move his arms at the moment. "Careless," he mumbled, "got shot. I should know to avoid hunting season."

He heard an intake of breath from above him and shrugged. "It's not a big deal," he told them, "its happened before." He frowned, trying to remember. "Not like this, though. I was trying to get them out of Russia and got too close."

"And this?" North demanded. A finger poked his arm, just around the elbow.

"A wolf bit me," Jack answered.

A hot paw landed on his leg, patting it through the blanket and he answered without prompting. "I was learning to fly, I hit a tree. Broke it."

"The tree?" Bunny asked suspiciously.

"The bone," the spirit corrected.

Tooth leaned over to trail her fingers across the inside of his left arm and suddenly the world jolted, flipping over the last bit and dumping him out of dreamland. "What about these?" she asked.

Jack didn't reply.

She left her spot by his pillow to hover over him. "Jack," she prompted.

Jack didn't reply.

"These," she repeated, gesturing toward his arm, just in case he'd forgotten, "these parallel ones." He knew what she was talking about. Short white lines that climbed up from his wrist toward his elbow in orderly rows, evenly spaced. He didn't say anything, turning to study the wall.

Tooth flitted down, lacing her fingers under his chin and forcing him to look at her, "What did this to you..." she trailed off, wings stuttering a beat. "Jack, did you... hurt yourself?" she asked gently.

He squeezed his eyes shut, but didn't say anything.

Another hand joined the Tooth Fairy's, this one rapping smartly exactly where he had been shot. The spirit's eyes shot open in a pained gasp. He healed faster than humans, but not instantly, and that was painful.

Sandy was floating by the side of his bed, arms crossed and looking very stern. He pointed to the arm in question, and then at Jack's head as a question mark appeared over his own golden head.

Somehow, this struck deeper than the other queries. This one wasn't so easily ignored, because Sandy wouldn't fill up the silence with meaningless chatter, phrasing and rephrasing the question, he would just wait patiently until Jack had answered.

He nodded, just once.

Tooth gasped and North swore in Russian, but Jack couldn't look at either of them. Sandy dropped down to wind a firm grip around the lowest of the scars, never breaking eye contact, in silent sympathy or perhaps apology or even warning. He didn't say anything, no pictures, and Jack was grateful for that.

Some things were best said without words.

_We're here now_ was one of them.

* * *

**Not entirely happy with the ending, but it was refusing to be cooperative. This is for FrostFan1, who requested one where the other Guardians find out about injuries Jack had sustained.  
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**I would like to thank Qwerty124, nightmre13, FrostFan1, paracuties, DELTORAQUEST1, Nicki K, and naien543 for reviewing.  
**

**It is now a tradition. I update on my birthday. Enjoy!  
**


	5. By any other name

"Why are you here?" Bunny snapped, stomping to his full height and carefully adjusting to keep the majority of the foliage between him and the gaggle of kids scanning the ground for eggs.

Jack unhooked his knees from the tree branch he'd been hanging from, righting midair to ghost across the tops of the bushes. He swung his staff across the tops of shrubbery, spreading frost across the leaves, not being as careful was Bunny was to stay mostly out of sight. "Supervising the morning frost," he answered nonchalantly.

"On Easter?" the Guardian of Hope demanded, crossing his arms across his chest. He tapped a foot, not as a way to summon a tunnel, but lacking a better way to display his indignation.

"Spring hasn't come here yet," Jack replied as though this should be obvious. He hopped down from the level of the bushes to stand beside the furry Guardian.

Any scatching reply Bunny might have come up with was cut short by the little girl who staggered away from the rest of the kids toward them, clutching an empty Easter basket with both hands. She was probably only just now old enough to join in the hunt, explaining why she could see the oversized rabbit when no one else had looked very hard in their direction. Jack lifted off the ground again, preparing to back off and give Bunny some space to do his Guardian thing. Petty squabbles about snow and eggs aside, the Spirit of Winter did recognize this was his furred friend's holiday, his one special day a year, though he would never admit to such a thing aloud.

To their surprise, the girl walked right past Bunny to stop in front of him, mouth hanging open as she gaped between his feet and the ground that said feet very clearly were not touching. Jack smirked over her head at Bunny, with his best _who's-believed-in-now?_ expression. This: being seen, never got old.

The smug look lasted about as long as it took her widened eyes to work all the way up to his face and ask "Are you an angel?" in a decidedly awed, dreadfully _hopeful_ tone.

The smile shrank, then faded away as his brain processed exactly what had been said. Bunny doubled over, laughing so hard it was a wonder his tail was still attached.

"Um," Jack said. Hope was Bunny's territory, not his. Give him a game or something fun and he would run with it, but he had no idea how to deal with such abstract notions as hope and the trait when tied to angels, so 'um' was as eloquent as he could get right now.

Thankfully, Bunny saw his discomfort and came to the rescue. The oversized rabbit bent down, getting her attention with a paw to her shoulder. "Hey Kiddo," he greeted when the girl turned around, "you want an egg?"

She nodded, then glanced back at Jack. Leaning in close to Bunny, she utilized the stage whisper that small kids used when they thought they were keeping something secret. "Does the angel get one too?"

Had he still been invisible, Jack would have commented something sharp and sarcastic that may or may not have been entirely appropriate for current company, depending on his mood. But then, if he had still been invisible, he would not have been in this situation, so he swallowed any comments and set his feet on the ground.

Bunny chuckled, completely at home with kids in a way that Jack had yet to perfect. "Yeah, he does," the Guardian of Hope assured the girl. He presented her with a pink egg, green and purple swirls mixing around it, and patted her on the head. "Happy Easter, Kiddo."

She hugged the egg close, then leapt at Bunny, holding tightly to his fur in as much of a hug as her small arms would permit. Scampering off toward the group of adults, she called back "Bye Easter Bunny! Bye angel!"

Bunny chuckled again, straightening to his full height. Jack resisted the urge to float off the ground again to even the height difference and leaned on his staff instead, idly frosting patterns in the grass with his toes.

"Snow-free Easters for a decade, you never mention the singing thing, and the others never hear about this," the other Guardian said without looking away from the kids still hunting eggs.

"Three years," Jack countered.

"Done," Bunny replied, "g'bye, angel." He tapped a hind foot and hopped into the rabbit hole that opened up. It closed after him, swallowing the echoes of the Hope Guardian's laughter.

* * *

**I needed to write something silllier and happier than the last chapter, and this is what came out. I entirely blame the fact that I was listening to "Angel with a shotgun".  
**

**paracuties: I'm not entirely sure what you meant by that, except that you want something less depressing.  
**

**Qwerty124: Glad I could be of inspiration.  
**

**I'd like to thank LightMyBulb, paracuties, DELTORAQUEST1, AntarcticIcicle, FrostFan1, Alana-kittychan, Magiccatprincess, Catflower Queen, Qwerty124, and bedstories for reviewing.**


	6. Taxicab

Her party had wound down and everyone had gone home a while ago and while she was allowed to stay up later than usual, she wasn't supposed to still be awake. That didn't stop Sophie from sitting up in bed, facing the window and listening to the deep breathing of her mom and mutterings from Jamie that meant they were asleep while she waited eagerly for her favorite part of her birthday to begin.

Sophie had _connections_, and hers were even better than Emily whose mom was the mayor and way cooler than Tyler whose dad was a policeman.

A rapping at the window drew her out of her thoughts and a skinny teenaged boy with white hair and a trickster's spark in his icy blue eyes let himself, landing soundlessly on her bedroom floor.

Sophie leapt off the bed, flying into him in something between a tackle and a hug. "You came!"

Jack staggered back a step under the momentum, but managed to catch her. "Bunny would be disappointed if his favorite ankle-biter didn't get to celebrate her birthday properly." His voice dropped into an imitation of the furry Guardian's accent on the nickname and failed, but Sophie giggled anyway.

"Bunny!" she cheered, squirming free to run to the window and check out. Usually the Guardian of Hope came to get her and she was permitted to ride on his back through the tunnels to the Warren, but all she could see was snow that was starting to melt away. Jamie would be sad about the snow, he liked winter best, but she liked spring. "Where's Bunny?"

"One of his dye vats exploded," the spirit explained. Sophie turned back around to find he had hopped up on the back of her chair, carefully balancing a golden bucket atop the door frame. "He was scrubbing pink out of his fur when I left."

"Pink?" she laughed.

Jack flashed her a grin over his shoulder and hopped down, snatching up his staff from where he'd leaned it against the door and taking a step back to survey the bucket. She knew from experience that it was both made of and filled with Sandy's dream sand, so if her mom came looking for her, she would fall asleep, whichever Guardian came to retrieve her would move her mom back to bed, and the adults would be none the wiser.

Satisfied, he turned back. "Ready to go?"

She cheered a yes and he bent down so she could climb on his back, fastening her arms around his neck. He was just as cold as always, icy to the touch, but she pushed it aside in favor of the excitement. He tugged on her arms so she wasn't choking him, bent his knees, and launched them out the window. Once they were outside, he rocketed straight up and Sophie squeezed her eyes shut tight and didn't open them again until the wind was no longer whistling past her ears and she was certain the Guardian of Fun was on level ground again.

"Happy birthday," greeted a familiar voice. Sophie opened her eyes and scrambled down off the white-haired boy, before running straight to the furry Guardian. He still had a stubborn pink streak along one of his ears, she noted absently.

"Hey ankle-biter," Bunny greeted, bending down to her level, "How're you doing?"

"Cold," Sophie told him, not stopping her forward momentum until she was buried in Bunny's fur as far as she could go. He was satisfyingly warm after Jack's chill and she sighed in contentment, hugging him as far as her arms would reach.

The Guardian of Hope let her hug him for a minute, then straightened up, leading her into the Warren. "Come on ankle-biter, let's celebrate your birthday right."

"Don't I get a hello?" she heard Jack ask as he followed them, "What am I, a slush-ball?"

Without looking back, Bunny called over his shoulder. "I would imagine so mate," and ducked just in time to avoid the snowball that went whizzing over his head to splat against the tunnel wall.

* * *

**Set a year or two after the movie. Based off the headcanon that Sophie goes to the Warren for her birthday. It's Bunny's way of spoiling his favorite ankle-biter.  
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**FrostFan1: Bunny was bargaining for not going straight to Tooth and/or North and/or Sandy and/or Jamie and telling them the whole incident. Sorry if that was unclear, I've edited it so it's hopefully better.  
**

**paracuties: I will never stop writing. Glad it was satisfactory.  
**

**I'd like to thank DELTORAQUEST1, ITell, snowflake1814, bedstories, Dinogeek, Catflower Queen, FrostFan1, TaintedPerspective, and paracuties for reviewing.**


	7. Once upon a coincidence

A petite girl, blonde hair curling around her face, was sitting just outside the cabin, knees drawn up to her chest and head resting against them. Even from the top of the roof, he could hear her crying. She was trying to be quiet, and mostly failing and that was what made him hop down to crouch beside her.

"Hey, don't cry," Jack soothed. He moved a hand toward her, angling toward her forehead in a comforting gesture that he choked off before he could go straight through her. Even an inch away, he could feel the heat radiating off her skin and suddenly understood why she was out here even though winter was just threatening to break over the horizon.

She was sick, attempting to starve off the fever, make herself better. He pushed himself up to peer through the window and found two other small heads, equally blonde, huddled close over their schoolbooks and added protecting her siblings to the list of reasons she was huddled in the cold.

"Who are you?" Jack jerked back to find her looking straight at him. Not through him, like so many have, but actually at him, eyes fixed firmly on his face. The words were slurred and her eyes were bright and her cheeks flushed, but she was looking at him.

"Jack Frost," the words tore themselves loose too fast, as though it would hurt less to break this spell of almost-belief that she had all-unknowingly cast over him if he did it quick. Besides, he'd been longing to tell someone his name for years and years, since the Moon lifted him out of the dark and left him there.

"I'm Elisa," she muttered, "Tommy started seeing things before he died." She tilted her head, eyelids drooping and Jack reached forward before he could stop himself.

Her skin was burning hot under his touch, but he forced himself not to jerk back. The girl sighed and leaned into his palm contently.

He wasn't too sure about human illnesses, but he was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to go to sleep under these conditions. Jack freed his other hand from around his staff and shook her shoulder gently. "Hey, don't fall asleep on me," he told her, "you have to stay awake. Listen, I'll-" he cast around for something he could do. "I'll tell you a story."

He settled down next to her, leaning against the wall of the cabin and managing not to flinch when she snuggled her fiery burning self into his side, horrific heat against every inch she touched and found a story he'd heard told once.

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess..."

He kept talking, telling her stories, as many as he knew, shaking her whenever she threatened to fall asleep and sending little jolts of his power through her. He frosted the tip of her nose once to keep her awake and laughed at the adorably irritated way she swiped at it, like one of the kittens he had glimpsed through windows.

The heat coming from her dimmed through the day and by the time the sun was brushing against the horizon line, she was back to normal human temperature. It was slightly less painful than her previous temperature, but he was still going to find himself a snowbank and sleep for the night until his body returned to normal.

He ran out of stories, and began to tell her one he knew rather than he had heard. Resting a hand against her forehead as he spoke, he was satisfied she was at a lesser, more acceptable level of burning hot, closer to normal human body temperature.

Jack stopped the story and eased himself free, leaving her leaning against the wall of the cabin, drifting off to sleep. He plucked up his staff from where it was leaning against the cabin.

Elisa's voice, sleepy rather than feverish now, held him to the ground. "How'd it end?" she asked.

He turned back, didn't dare touch her. Already she was fading fast, another warm body heading this way to find and wake her, and he would be just a dream.

"What makes you think it's ended?" the spirit said. And it was sort of an answer, and sort of a promise.

* * *

Elisa never forgot the boy she saw when was sick out of her mind with fever. She eagerly told all her siblings and her friends about him, and they enjoyed teasing her about it later.

She never saw him again, but that didn't stop her from imagining something more in the stray breezes that swirled up snowflakes and the beautiful patterns frosted against her window. Sometimes, she had dreams of white hair and blue eyes that faded away as she woke. She whispered secrets to him in the dead of night, and treasured this friend, however imaginary.

Only once, when she was standing outside the chapel with Sir Raveneau's arm wound through hers, standing for the first time as husband and wife, she thought she felt Jack Frost again. There was a cool breeze against her cheek, and the very tips of her flowers' petals coated in sparkling ice.

She lifted a hand and waved, hoping he could see her, and told her children about him.

* * *

"Hey, Jack," Claud, one of Jamie's friends, asked, "how come we know your name?"

"Because I told you," Jack replied instantly, popping over the edge of the fort to taunt Paige with a target before ducking back down.

"No," Claud shook his head. "Before that. We knew of you, knew your name and kinda what you looked like before we knew you. How's that?"

Jack's smile faltered for the barest hint of an instant, and he leaned down to scoop up a snowball- _dark nights with whispered secrets and blonde hair over a merry smile, a laughed, protesting "Jack!" when the winter wind tugged away her scarf, an "I love you" for her fever-dream boy, but never unconditionally true belief -_took his time making it, getting the boy on the edge of his seat, then looked back up with his smile firmly back in place. "I guess sometimes things are just coincidences."

* * *

**I've been sitting on the idea for this chapter for a while, and it all just came together today. Happy Valentine's Day, or Single's Awareness Day, whichever you celebrate. **

******Elisa and Sir Raveneau come from the Jack Frost television special released in** 1979, but this take on her is mine.

**Catflower Queen: Both Jack and I claim to the fifth about that. I'm leaving it up to your imagination.**

**I'd like to thank DELTORAQUEST1, FrostFan1, Catflower Queen, and snowflake1814 for reviewing.  
**


	8. To Whom it may Concern

"If this is about the squirrel thing," Jack began, carefully keeping his staff away from North's ice carvings. The Guardian of Wonder became rather angry if someone messed up one of his prototypes without there being an actually emergency and he had no desire to repeat that experience.

"Squirrel?" North asked absently, attention still in the letters he was sorting through.

Jack backpedaled as fast as he could. "So, what did you want to see me about?"

"Letter," the large man extended a hand and the spirit, curiosity piqued, jumped forward to retrieve it.

"Who's writing to me?" he asked, pulling the envelope open and pulling out a piece of paper.

"Letter is not addressed to you," North said, "but request is."

Jack unfolded the piece of paper and began to read, eyes skimming over the wobbly handwriting.

"Little boy wants-" the Russian began.

"Snow," the spirit interrupted.

The Guardian of Wonder blinked in surprise. "You know French?" he asked.

"Oui," Jack replied. He glanced up to note the man's surprised expression. "A few too many snowy Valentine's Days, and I ran into Eros. I wanted to be able to talk to someone, so I learned."

He said it so casually, as though it wasn't a big deal, but it was a dagger of guilt straight to North's heart to be reminded of how long they had ignored the boy. It was a miracle he'd hadn't turned out like Pitch, the way they had treated him.

"You think you can do this?" he asked gruffly.

Jack turned his attention back to the paper and the return address listed. "It's a bit close to the middle of the world, but I can."

Christmas Eve found the Spirit of Winter perched on a hospital roof, evaluating the temperature. It was still a bit warm for snow, the powder would melt on contact with the ground and not accumulate, but he would make it happen. Contrary to what people seemed to think, winter did not just happen. It took effort and concentration and he could not bring down blizzards in the middle of summer. He was subject to things like the turning of the world and the Groundhog's deadline, just as surely as Christmas was December 25th for North, and bad things happened if he chose to ignore those deadlines. Mother Nature got very mad if someone messed with her schedules.

He held the staff with both hands, leaning his forehead against it as he tugged the clouds into position. For the last few days, he'd been shrouding this area, keeping the sun away and driving the temperature down with nightly coats of frost.

Wind swirled around him, telling him that everything was in position. Without opening his eyes, Jack reached inside himself and opened the floodgates.

It started to snow: thick fat flakes that floated gently towards earth.

Jack took a running start and leapt off the edge of the building, twisting in midair to stop in front of a specific window. He laid his hand against the glass, ice seeking the lock. The frozen water tripped it, an old trick, and Jack let himself in.

The room had two occupants, an adult asleep in a chair, head propped up on one arm, and a boy lying in a hospital bed. He was young, younger than Jamie, and so small, hooked up in a tangle of tubes to a mess of machines that dwarfed his sickly frame. Jack laid a hand on his arm, snapping down hard on the frost that tried to escape, and shook him.

Slowly, his eyes opened. _"Santa?"_ he asked in French as his eyes focused on the spirit. The words were spoken with a strength that contrasted how fragile he appeared. _"Did you get my letter?"_

Nowdays, he had about a 10-90 chance of actually being seen, but one of the things about the dying is that they readily believed

_"He did,"_ Jack replied in the same language, _"but I came to answer it. Look."_ He stepped aside, pointing out the window.

The boy's eyes widened at the white drifting down outside. _"Snow,"_ he breathed.

Jack nodded.

The eyes flickered back to him. _"You're not Santa,"_ he observed.

Jack leaned on his staff, fighting back the frost that wanted to escape into the floor. _"No, I'm not."_

_"Will you stay with me?"_ he asked, his eyes fixed again on the snow. Jack put a hand out the still-open window and persuaded a handful of flakes in to rain gently down on the boy, catching in his hair. The boy raised a hand to catch one, face lighting up as it settled on his palm.

_"I will,"_ the spirit assured him.

_"Just until I fall asleep,"_ the boy mumbled, already sounding drowsy, _"just for a little while."_

Someone entered the room, the door shutting noiselessly. Jack glanced up quickly, then leapt into a defensive posture, staff spinning around to point at the black-cloaked figure.

The figure put its hands up, and they were the hands of a skeleton, no flesh, just bone. In the depths of the hood, a skull grinned back at him.

"Who are you?" Jack demanded, shifting back to English in his surprise.

"Thanatos, Incarnation of Death" answered the figure. He put his hands down and stepped closer to the bed, stopping when Jack raised his staff higher. "May I know who is threatening me?"

"Jack Frost," that spirit shot back, "Guardian of Fun and Spirit of Winter." Since he'd started interacting with more of the eternals, he'd been having to say those titles more often, but they still tasted strange on his tongue.

"Well, Guardian, it's lovely to meet you," Thanatos said, "but I need to attend my client." He gestured toward the bed, "if you could move aside?"

Jack didn't budge an inch. He had taken a vow to protect the children and he wasn't going to stand idly by while this one died. "Why should I?"

"Because it's his time," replied Thanatos, "and no one can thwart Death in his own sphere of influence. If you don't move, Winter, I will make you."

"Then make me," Jack challenged.

Death stretched out his hand, and the bones of his fingers passed right through his chest. The spirit gasped as Thanatos hooked onto something and tugged, very lightly, but enough to make his breath leave him completely. The skeleton withdrew, leaving Jack clutching his chest, and if skulls could look remorseful, this one did.

He stepped around Jack and bent over the bed. Tenderly, he reached into the boy's chest, and pulled out a sheet of silver threads, brightly glowing. The boy exhaled softly, and the machines showed a single line and sound a flat beep.

"You killed him," the spirit spat, getting to his feet.

"No," Thanatos corrected, folding the soul neatly and tucking it away into his bag, "I merely aided his soul in leaving." He looked up, and brushed his hood back. Abruptly, the face was not that of a skull, but a man, "Death is necessary for life to move, Winter. It's what makes life worth living."

"It still seems cruel," Jack leaned on his staff, unable to tear his eyes away from the unmoving from in the bed.

"The most I can be is gentle," Thanatos told him, "and compassionate. End their suffering quickly once their time has come, without further pain, and enable them to die with dignity. That's the task of the office, and someday someone will take my place, and then it will be their job."

There wasn't much he could say to that, and so Jack remained silent as Death nodded to him, pulled his hood back up and left. It was only then that he hurled into movement, banging the window farther open as he leapt out. The wind snatched him up in a centuries-old familiar dance and carried him away.

He had a sudden desire to go visit whichever of the Guardians was closest, just to see someone who wouldn't be snatched away out of his life.

* * *

**Thanatos the Incarnation of Death comes from the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony. It's an good series, and not mine, but I'd highly recommend reading it.**


End file.
